Monday, April 23, 2012

Earth Day DIY

What's that you say? A cork snake--a toy snake made out of old wine corks. It'd make a great homemade gift for a 4-year old child or older. It's not too hard to make either!

Cork is such a wonderful material it feels wrong to throw away all those wine bottle stoppers. Trivets, cork boards, and other fun doodads can be made from this lovely reused material. I happened upon this sweet up-cycled DIY toy on Domestic Candy--a cute blog out of Germany.

Simple instructions to make your own cork snake:

Cut 10 corks into quarters.

Drill holes through the cork pieces.

Thread thick string through a needle and string the cork.

Tie a knot between each cork piece.

Take a cork for the head and shave it into a desired shape; cut out a mouth.

Take the longest needle you have and pull the string through the drilled hole.

Tie a final knot; leave a little string hanging out of the mouth as the tongue.

Draw eyes on with a sharpie.

Notes: Make sure you have a small bit for your drill. You could hand drill each cork piece with an awl but a power drill will shorten the process. When drilling you'll create a bit of cork dust so make sure you working over a designated work space.